The price of Bitcoin fell by around 5% on Sunday as the fallout from Donald Trump’s trade war widened.
By the end of the weekend, the world’s largest and best-known cryptocurrency was trading just below $79,000 (£61,500), well below the high of $106,000 hit after the US presidential election victory.
Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, also fell by around 9.6% to just below $1,618.
The sell-off means investors could be in for another turbulent week as stocks look set to see even bigger falls.
Trump’s tariff announcement on Liberation Day, confirming huge tariffs on countries around the world, wiped around $6 trillion off global markets last week.
Bitcoin has been as volatile as stocks as Trump escalates his trade war and investors fret over the prospect of a global recession.
Previously, Donald Trump embraced cryptocurrencies during his successful presidential campaign and vowed to make the US “the undisputed Bitcoin superpower and the cryptocurrency capital of the world”.
Trump has stuck to his views despite previously calling cryptocurrencies a “scam” that affects the value of the dollar.
His U-turn on cryptocurrencies has led Trump to launch his own meme coin, $Trump. The value of his cryptocurrency initially soared after his inauguration in January, though it has fallen 40% in the past four weeks.
First Lady Melania Trump has also launched her own meme coin, though it has lost nearly a third of its value in the past month.
After returning to the White House, the US president signed an executive order to establish the so-called Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Reserve, which will store bitcoins seized by the government.
Trump’s cryptocurrency czar David Sachs described the funds as a “digital Fort Knox for cryptocurrencies, often referred to as digital gold.”
While supporters of mainstream cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum see them as a potential way to transform payments and finance, meme coins have little use.
Instead, they are seen as a way to support certain figures or a form of gambling.
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